E-Commerce is an important opportunity for businesses in today’s world. Not only has it become an important part of retail, but for the economy as a whole. People have changed their shopping habits, moving away from brick and mortar stores to a greater reliance on internet shopping for goods and services. Besides convenience, it makes it easy to obtain different products and services worldwide especially products not available locally. It also provides an avenue to maintain contact with current, past and future customers. It also is a way for small entrepeneurs or home-based businesses to have a retail presence.
Currently the two most popular ways to set up an E-Commerce site are an embedded store using a plug-in on one’s website and using a separate site store. An example of the former is WooCommerce and of the latter is Magento. Knowing some of their basic differences can help determine which is the right solution for you.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce currently is one of the most widely used embedded store plug-ins. WooCommerce seemed to be designed with WordPress in mind, so if already using WordPress, adding WooCommerce is pretty easy. The cost associated with WooCommerce is pretty low, mostly due to additional add-ons and plug-ins which can be used to make modifications to the store. Since only basic technical skills are needed to set it up, it is more user-friendly, thereby making it a good choice for less tech savvy users. As it includes a number of built-in themes, it is easy to have a attractive store interface. There are no transaction fees and allows for 3 or 4 payment methods and 3 payment gateways and Apple Pay is supported. Even though there developer support is limited, since it is so widely implemented there is an extensive knowledge base with an active forum presence and many on-line tutorials. One main drawback is in the area of security. There are no included security features so must be sourced through the web-hosting provider such as SSL certificates.
Magento
Magento is a more expensive option with yearly costs up to 10 times higher than with WooCommerce. However, with that higher cost comes greater functionality. It provides built-in inventory options, sales, advanced SEO tools and advanced analytics. It includes better inventory management with tracking of customer log-ins, product comparisons, anchor menus, wish lists and gift card payments. There are no transaction fees and allows for 6 payment methods but only 2 included payment gateways. One area it excels in is in security. It’s security features include: PCI-compliance, site security scanner, free SSL certificate, 24/7 server monitoring and regularly released security patches to close any vulnerabilities that arise. It can also support thousands of products. It offers good customer support with forums, phone and email options. It’s main drawback, and this can be significant, is it’s complexity in set-up and use. It requires a lot of technical know-how in order to install and to operate flawlessly. This may require in-house IT services or higher outside development help.
Summary
Due to it’s lower cost and ease of installation and use, WooCommerce is a good choice for smaller businesses. Magento is the better option for medium to large enterprises (although they do offer a smaller, freemium version targeting smaller operations). Although it is more costly, it’s greater functionality and security will be of benefit. Larger companies would also be more likely to have resources available to handle the more technical aspects needed with this option.